Preview: Fleetwood Town v Hull City

9 October 2020

Fleetwood Town face Hull City on Friday 9 October at Highbury Stadium in Sky Bet League One, and we have all you need to know ahead of the 7:45pm kick-off in our match preview.

Fixture: Fleetwood Town v Hull City

Competition: Sky Bet League One

Date: Friday 9 October 2020

Kick-off: 19:45

Venue: Highbury Stadium, Park Avenue, Fleetwood, FY7 6TX

Match officials: Ollie Yates (Referee), Thomas Harty and Paul Kelly (Assistant Referees), Anthony Backhouse (Fourth Official)

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FLEETWOOD TOWN

Fleetwood have had a frustrating start to the Sky Bet League One season this year. The side started the season off with a 2-1 win over Burton Albion – thanks to goals by Josh Morris and Callum Camps on the day – but have been unlucky in the last few fixtures and haven’t got the results they were looking for.

Outside the league campaign, Fleetwood enjoyed a run up to the third round of the Carabao Cup, where they faced off against Premier League toppers Everton at Highbury. Even with The Toffees putting out a very strong side, Town stood their own and put two past England international Jordan Pickford in a valiant performance.

Last time out, the Cod Army walked away 3-0 victors on Tuesday night as they managed to overcome Aston Villa U21 in the EFL Trophy, with forward Harvey Saunders scoring a perfect hat-trick that night in just 15 minutes.

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HULL CITY

Hull have had the start that they would have hoped for back in the summer as they sit joint top of Sky Bet League One after winning their first four games. They began their campaign with a 2-0 win over Gillingham away from home, before they travelled to Premier League side Leeds United a few days later and beat them on penalties in the Carabao Cup.

The Tigers have since beaten Crewe Alexandra, thanks to a Mallik Wilks goal, at the KCOM Stadium. They then went to Northampton Town and won that game 2-0 before hosting Plymouth Argyle on their last outing, which they won 1-0 – keeping up their streak of not conceding a league goal so far this season.

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COACHES QUOTES – JOEY BARTON

“Hull are a good side who normally play 433. They’ve got no Josh Magennis, but they are one of the sides who set the course at the start of the season to get promoted at the first attempt.

“They are a side that will be there, or thereabouts, come the end of the season. It will be a great opportunity to get a level on where we are at against one of the promotion chasing teams.

“Hull will be looking to take three points, they won’t care that we aren’t at 100% at the moment, it’s just the case of the industry. We are raring to go and we are hoping to upset the form book a little bit by doing what we do at home.”

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ONE TO WATCH – KEANE LEWIS-POTTER

One to watch in the Hull side under the lights is forward, Keane Lewis-Potter. The 19-year-old has shone in Hull’s Under 18s and Under 23s over the last couple of seasons.

He was named as the Academy Player of the Year in 2018/19 after an impressive campaign saw him score 24 goals in just 34 games for the Tigers at U18s and U23s levels - before enjoying his breakthrough campaign at first-team level in 2019/20.

Lewis-Potter has made a total of 31 appearance in all competitions, and has scored five goals in that time, with his first senior goal came in a 3-1 defeat away at Barnsley last season, and his last one coming in the 2-0 win over Northampton Town in September.

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Match Previews

Match Reports

Report: Town back to winning ways after beating Hull at Highbury

9 October 2020

Fleetwood Town got back to winning ways on Friday night as they beat high-flying Hull City 4-1 at Highbury Stadium.

Harvey Saunders continued his recent run of scoring as he managed to bag a goal either side of a Callum Camps strike from close range. Sam Stubbs also got on the score sheet to score his first goal for the club late on in the game.

The first chance of the game fell to the visitors as Mallik Wilks received the ball 20-yards away from the Hull goal, pushed the ball onto his left-foot, but his shot was easily saved by Jayson Leutwiler.

Fleetwood went down the other end of the pitch with Callum Camps, who controlled the ball on the edge of the box, but his shot was deflected out for a corner. The subsequent corner was cleared.

The visitors came close to opening the scoring when a corner was whipped in from the left, and Reece Burke touched the ball towards goal, but his effort came off the crossbar and was cleared.

Saunders found himself back on the score sheet, scoring in his third game in a row, as he dribbled down the right, taking on his man before powering his strike past the goalkeeper.

Not long after, Hull went back on the attack and equalised through a Honeyman strike. Wilks was played through the backline and played the ball to Honeyman who found the top corner.

Just before the half, Fleetwood had claims for a penalty waved away by the referee, but the players were adamant that they should have earned a spot kick after a Wilks challenge on Ched Evans.

After the restart, Saunders latched onto a loose pass from the Hull defence and burst towards goal. Rather than going himself, he played the ball across the box to Camps who slotted home.

Fleetwood doubled their lead soon after as Evans drilled a low cross into the Hull area and Saunders was there to tap the ball in to score his second of the game.

The forward almost had a hat-trick in the game with 20 minutes to go as Paddy Madden’s close range shot was brilliantly saved by Matt Ingram, but he could only push the ball to Saunders whose shot was straight at the keeper.

Stubbs added to the scoreline late on as he headed a corner into the ground, just infront of Ingram and the bounce saw it go past the Hull number 13.

Town XI: Leutwiler (GK), Andrew, Whelan, Burns, Evans (Duffy), Camps, Coutts (C) (Matete), Madden, Saunders (Hill), Stubbs, Holgate.

Subs not used: Cairns (GK), McKay, Garner, Rydel.

Hull XI: Ingram (GK), Elder, De Wijs, Burke, Wilks (Samuelsen 86’), Batty (Mayer), Honeyman (C), Emmaunel, Adelukan (Slater), Lewis-Potter, Docherty.

Subs not used: Long (GK), Coyle, Jones, Chadwick.